OverviewThe Immigrant Stories and Timeline Gallery shifts the focus of visitors from a global to a very local and personalised perspective. The central exhibition features five displays each highlighting a personal story to represent a different period in Australia's immigration history: 1800-1900, 1901-1940, 1940s-1960s, 1970s-1980s and 1990s-Present. These stories are supplemented by two further display cases in the subsequent Journey of a Lifetime gallery. These cases, each of which changes on an annual rotation, tell personal stories through objects, images, text and audio visual presentations. The selection of stories aims to achieve a broad diversity of representation in terms of country and culture of origin, gender, motivation for migrating and settlement experiences. Each story also includes a contextual text panel, which expands on a particular migration theme represented by the personal story - for example World War II internment, chain migration, migrant textile workers, Empire Settlement Scheme, and migrant hostels. The displays are developed in variety of ways depending on the particular story - through the Museum's own collections, often only recently acquired, through family loans and community collaborations.

Also featured is an Immigration Timeline which runs around the perimeter of the gallery. Through text and images it provides a decade by decade summary of key moments in Victoria's immigration history, highlighting significant policy and social developments, shifts in population and demographics, debate and the impact of immigration upon Indigenous Australians.

The exhibition is supported by an online version of the Immigration Timeline which features links to migration objects for each decade and cartoons by Melbourne cartoonist Oslo Davis who provides a contemporary interpretation on key migration issues over time.

Museum Victoria objects featured in past and present Immigrant Stories can be explored by following the links to collections online listed below.

Further Exhibition Content The current Immigrant Stories cases currently on display are 1800-1900: John Cotton, England, 1843 1901-1940: Karl Muffler, Germany, 1930 you can find out more about Karl on the discovery centre website and collections online1940s-1960s: Edda Azzola, Italy, 1955 you can find out more about Edda on collections online1970s-1980s: Youssef, Romanos and Tansa Eid, Lebanon, 1960s you can find out more about the Eid brothers on the discovery centre website 1990s-Present: Yasser Al-Alwayi, Iraq, 2007